Why New York chefs avoid San Francisco

Bistro M, which opened in the mid-1990s near Fifth and Mission, had an LA vibe but failed to excite San Franciscans. Photo by Steve Castillo

From a reader:

Can you please explain why the big NY restauranteurs/chefs (Daniel Boulud, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Lidia Bastianich, etc) never expand their empires to SF? Why do they prefer to open restaurants in Scottsdale/Kansas City/Pittsburgh instead of SF or LA? I have nothing against those cities, but it seems like there is more of a food scene here than, say, Pittsburgh. What are your thoughts?

Mario Batali, one of New York’s most successful chef/restaurateurs who has places in Las Vegas and Los Angeles and worked for a time in San Francisco , once told me he would never open a restaurant here. The competition is too stiff, he said. It makes sense that chefs would pick the low-hanging fruit, going to cities that have a less formidable dining culture.

However, contrary to what the reader said, Los Angeles is a different story. Many high profile chefs from out of town have found ripe ground there. There’s Jose Andres at Bazaar, Mario Batali (with Nancy Silverton) at Mozza, Tom Colicchio at Craft and Laurent Tourondel at BLT Steak, to name a few.

San Francisco has never much cottoned to one-, two- or three-offs. Out-of-towners who have been successful have generally come up with different concepts, such as Wolfgang Puck at Postrio and Drew Nieporent at Rubicon. We’re a little provincial, a little smug about our homegrown talent, and a little less enthralled with big-name chefs who garner fame elsewhere and then bring a concept here.

There have been very few East Coast restaurants that have flourished here; in fact, about the only one I can think of now is Tom Colicchio’s ‘Wichcraft in Westfield Centre, but that’s far from fine dining.

Some places from our friends in the West have found an audience, including Chaya, which originated in LA, and Roy’s from Hawaii. However others have failed, the most spectacular being Michel Richard of Citrus who tried and failed with Bistro M in 1994, but went on to dominate the dining scene in Washington D.C.

About the only successful New York transplant I can think of is Richard Sandoval at Maya, but, ironically, Mexican cuisine is the one we’re weakest in and it’s a hole that needs to be filled. Maybe that’s the reason that the owners of Rosa Mexicano, with three locations in New York and other cities, announced they’re heading west to open a branch at One Market Street. That’s on tap after openings in LA, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C.